Longing
by musicgurl21284
Summary: A look at Tim's thoughts between seasons five and six, as well as some in "Last Man Standing."


Longing

I tapped the keyboard once again and stared at the screen until I thought that my eyes would cross. Another day, another level of encryption to crack, and this one was harder than the six before it. I'd been looking around for something, _anything_, to break the perpetual cycle of boredom that seemed to revolve around my so-called existence. My eyes wandered around the room, lighting on a small metal tube sitting innocently among sundry computer parts. Super glue… My gaze slid over to Pringle, who'd been working on the code all morning and been stammering out questions that any first year computer forensics student could answer. MIT graduate, my foot. A grin twitched at the corner of my mouth, but was quickly strangled by a sharp twisting sensation in my chest. No…couldn't do that…reminds me too much of old times...

Gibbs appeared in the Cyber Crime Unit to glean some information about Director Vance's pet project. How in the world he found out about it, I don't know, but hey, he's Gibbs, and he's pretty damn near omniscient. At lunch the other day, Abby mentioned that she had some theories on how Gibbs pulled that off, but I had to go back to the dungeon…er, unit before she could go into too much detail. In all honesty, I had my own theories on how Gibbs knew more than we thought he did, and if Keating would stop figuring out how to fix his "accidentally" corrupted drives, I might actually be able to stay in the bullpen long enough to test a few of them out. If I could find a way to stay up there permanently, even better.

Seeing their boss's boss scared the crap out of some of my "team", but it thrilled me to no end. Yeah, I have lunch with Abby every once in a while, and I get, well, _got_, emails from Ziva fairly regularly, but Gibbs? Tony? Nothing. I hadn't seen or heard anything from them in months. Gibbs coming down, even if I couldn't tell him anything, made me feel as if I was useful down here, as if maybe I was down here for a reason.

And as if a visit wasn't enough, Gibbs hinted that he was trying to get the team back together! The spark of hope in me that had long since dimmed, flared to life with an almost painful intensity. I would give anything to work with Gibbs and Ziva again, and I told him as much. When he asked about Tony, all I could say was,

"Yeah, him too."

Pffft. Who am I kidding? You know, as much as I act like I don't want Tony around, the fact is that things have been downright boring around here, and it's not just because I've been stuck in Subbasement C, a.k.a. the Cyber Crime Unit, for the past four months.

Yeah, sure, I'm the "boss" down here. I carry a handgun. Heh, if only that's all it took to get some respect upstairs…anyways. I'm in charge of the unit. Sort of. I know the most about anything and everything we come across down here. I'm the one with the expertise for a change. People look to me, _me_, when they're stuck, because I shine down here. I do. But it's not the same. Believe it or not, I actually miss the pranks, the harassment. Even more, I miss the banter, the camaraderie that we shared. We were more than partners; we were, are, friends. Family.

Tony is like the big brother that I never wanted but got anyway. Yeah, he could be annoying at times, but he was always there for me when it counted, whether it was to cheer me up or cover my six. He brought a certain liveliness to our work with his movie references and teasing. Sure, he picks on me a bit, but I have picked up on a few things, learning from him when he wasn't looking. And wouldn't it just kill Tony to hear me make a movie reference. I can hear him now. "Horning in on my territory, are we, McGee? The Majestic? Really? Never thought I'd see the day. Of course, you still have much to learn, young grasshopper." And then he would headslap me, or superglue me to my keyboard, or try some other juvenile prank that would earn _him_ a headslap, and everything would be back to normal.

I can only hope.


End file.
